Bidders line up for Jimmy Choo, Kors is on the list

The news flow around Jimmy Choo’s sale may have been pretty slow since it was first put on the block a few months ago but at least we now know some of the interested bidders,

Jimmy Choo

Step forward Michael Kors. The premium-to-luxury fashion and accessories firm, which lost out on Kate Spade to Coach, is reported to be one of the queue of potential bidders prepared to pay around £800 million for the luxury footwear specialist.

Also in the line are private equity group CVC that was once an owner of Debenhams, as well Pizza Express owner Hony Capital, which is a Chinese private equity giant.

Sky News reported that at least one other bidder has come forward but it does not know who that is.

Jimmy Choo is majority owned by JAB Holding, the German Reimann facility’s investment arm. The family said this spring that it wants to focus on other parts of its business empire. As a result it is looking to offload its 70% stake in Jimmy Choo, as well as its other luxury fashion names Bally and Belstaff, although Jimmy Choo is likely to be the first - and the highest-profile - brand sold.

It appears to heave weathered the luxury downturn and is punching its way up in the luxury sector as it expands in Asia and also grows its still-young men’s footwear business.

The label was founded by the eponymous shoemaker but it stepped up a level in 1996 when former Vogue accessories editor Tamara Mellon joined up with Choo and created the brand as we know it today. She stepped down in 2011 after the company and has since been very vocal in her dislike of private equity firms.

Mellon was revealed to be suing the firm last year claiming uncompetitive business practices that she said had hampered the Tamara Mellon brand she set up post-Jimmy Choo.